In a moving speech at Warsaw's Royal Castle on Tuesday evening, US President Joe Biden reiterated that the world's autocracy would ultimately be defeated by democracy. Biden quoted Ukrainian President Zelensky as saying that the war in Ukraine will "define how the world will live in the future." Ukraine will "never be Russia's victory."

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, based in Warsaw.

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To achieve this, the West has created the "largest sanctions regime ever imposed on a country in history" and will expand it this week with further sanctions against Russia. "All those responsible for this war will be held accountable." It is about establishing justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that continue to be committed by the Russians, he said.

Biden also addressed the people of Russia in his speech. "The United States and the European nations don't want to control or destroy Russia," Biden said. Before the war began, the West did not intend to attack Russia, as Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin claims. This war is a tragedy, and Putin voted for it, Biden stressed. "Every day that the war goes on is his decision. He could end the war with one word. It's easy."

"Air Force One" took off from Rzeszów

Biden also warned Russia against attacking a NATO member state: "There is no doubt: the commitment of the United States to our NATO alliance and to Article Five is rock solid. Every member of NATO knows it, and Russia knows it too: an attack against one is an attack against all. It is a sacred oath to defend every inch of NATO territory," Biden said on Tuesday evening in Warsaw with a view to the duty of assistance of the Western defense alliance. Biden did not make direct reference to Putin's previous speech. Biden also made no statements about new war aims or arms shipments.

The Polish audience had seen Joe Biden late. When he arrived back in Poland on Monday evening after his surprise trip to Ukraine, at the train station near the border in Przemyśl, television showed him getting off the train in the dark. His carriage then drove to the nearby airport in Rzeszów to fly to Warsaw.

For a long time, Biden's staff had assured for security reasons that the American president would only stop in one country, Poland. Earlier, Biden had traveled unannounced to Kiev to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and announce further military aid. The fact that Air Force One stopped in Poland just before the border with Ukraine pleased Rzeszów, with its 200,000 inhabitants, where most people are proud that their city has become the most important hub for foreign aid to Ukraine.

Visits by American presidents are always a major event in Poland, and this is even more true in a city like this, which is now seeing Biden for the second time. In March last year, shortly after Russia's attack on Ukraine, he had been here before, visited US soldiers and ordered 88 pizzas for them. The pizzeria Gusto, which got the order, today has a lot of visitors from soldiers and tourists, and the waitress proudly shows the menu, which now also includes a mushroom-pepperoni pizza called "Ostry Joe". Konrad Fijołek, who was elected mayor in 2021 for a centre-left alliance, is proud of his city's growing role. "In a way, we have become the center of the world," he says, listing the names of prominent travelers passing through: "Biden, Zelenskyj, Scholz, Macron, von der Leyen." Unfortunately, I am always informed about the most important visits five minutes in advance."